Town approves punishing violators with civil suits

Some residents worry amendment is redundant, time-consuming

Upper Marlboro's town commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday that could let the town pursue civil cases against residents who let their grass grow too high, allow trash to pile up on or commit other charter violations.

The resolution approved during a Town Hall meeting will go into effect Sept. 2 and will let the town classify some violations of its charter as municipal infractions, which can carry stiffer fines that commissioners said will be easier to enforce in certain cases. Commissioners will have to amend the charter in the future to make individual violations punishable as municipal infractions.

The town's charter says commissioners can currently only punish violations as misdemeanors, which the town rarely opts to do because these are criminal cases, and the charter limits fines for misdemeanors to $100 and six months in jail.

But municipal infractions, which are tried in a special court at the District Court in Hyattsville, can carry penalties as high as $1,000, with additional fines for ongoing violations.

The Prince George's County state's attorney's office will pursue those cases on the town's behalf and judges can empower the town to fix violations and charge violators for the work. Judges will also be able to rule against residents who fail to show up in court, and the standard of proof will be lower because municipal infractions do not lead to criminal charges.

Residents who commit municipal infractions will still be given a warning and a chance to correct the problem as they are with misdemeanors, Commission President Stephen Sonnett said.

Commissioners have not decided what ordinances could be enforced as municipal infractions or how often the town will pursue charges under the resolution.

But Helen Ford, an Upper Marlboro resident and former town commissioner, said taking people to court for civil offenses ties up police officers and other town officials, who would have to testify in Hyattsville, and will lead to court battles that could go on for months.

"[The town will be] sending an officer to Hyattsville for untold hours and [a violation] wouldn't be resolved until February when it happened last summer," she said.

Ford also argued that the charter does not limit the town to pursuing misdemeanor penalties. The charter says the town can pursue violations as misdemeanors, but it does not explicitly rule out other options.

Sonnett noted that the town will still pursue many violations as misdemeanors but said the resolution will give the town more options against repeat offenders or people who refuse to fix violations.

"Eventually what you get [with municipal infractions] is a court ordering someone to do something," Sonnett said. "It they don't, they're in contempt and the court can fine them anything they want. It's just a different tool that we ought to have."

Commissioner George Leonnig, who voted for the resolution, said the town should still charge most violators with misdemeanors, which he said carry more weight because they lead to criminal charges.

"If you're going to [enforce the charter], you might as well do it with as big a sledgehammer as you can, which in my opinion is a misdemeanor," he said.

In other business, Sonnett said that funding has been secured for two county studies that will look at historic sites in the town and analyze parking and traffic conditions. He said he is meeting next week with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission to discuss the studies, and said he hopes to know more before the next town hall meeting in August.

Sonnett said that in future meetings he wants to consider passing a new noise ordinance and discuss a resolution making it easier for the town to make purchases without going through a competitive bidding process. The next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 11.